


the neo world next door

by milkywayclouds



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Crime Fighting, Detective Noir, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28245687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkywayclouds/pseuds/milkywayclouds
Summary: there's something more to the person shuichi falls in love with under the moonlight
Relationships: Akamatsu Kaede/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	1. brumous (prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> **preface sorta thing**  
>  owing to shuichi’s talent of being a detective, i wanted to adapt this work to a noir setting at first. after some research, however, it turns out that that genre is darker, more pessimistic, and usually has tragic endings. as of the date i write this on – before having even started the prologue – i aim to fit shuichi into some nuances of hardboiled fiction while focusing on personality traits and decisions that can help guide the story into a bittersweet ending. i wanted to write shuichi as a morally upright person, so this does not really fall into the category of hardboiled fiction, though i want him to go through a moral dilemma to question the deepest parts of his heart and what he truly wants. i hope that you will enjoy reading this fusion of diluted hardboiled fiction and danganronpa as much as i will enjoy writing it :D
> 
> \- 23rd December 2020
> 
> 7th January 2021 update: i will be leaving some characters out of the tags to avoid spoilers! even after their identities are revealed i will not be adding to the tags, because this helps add an element of mystery ;)

He was never one to celebrate the year-end holidays. In fact, the chill that swept across the air and the monochromatic palette the surroundings preferred during the rear months of the year only made him even more confused as to why everyone around was emptying their wallets and pockets to their heart’s content.

Or perhaps, it could be from the huge amount of detective work he had been assigned – or more accurately, taken up on his own accord stemming from curiosity – which had hardened his character and blasted the worst parts of a human being up his ears; stuffed up to his nose the ugliest smells a rotten, decomposing heart could emanate. There was no more good left in anything, for he had seen the most revolting, disgusting, heinous things an average person with a neurotypical brain could comprehend. The lengths people would go to for money, love, power, fame… it got to him, and one day the world just became black and white. Life was no longer a bed of roses, but a solemn trudge towards death. And many a time did he snap into a daze while examining the pale visage of a man who was drowned by a jealous ex, or a woman who had deliberately thrown her phone into her bathtub while it was charging to commit suicide because her husband divorced her upon finding out that their two children were not, in fact, biological.

Life was a solemn trudge towards death, and many a time did he snap into a daze where he imagined himself as one of many nameless victims strewn across the back alleys of society, just like the countless human carcasses he had to inspect every day on the job. It was no surprise that some time or another he would wonder about the possibility of him ending up like those poor, unfortunate souls that had met disappointing demises, which ironically birthed and formed the backbone of his career as a detective. When someone dies, he analyses the situation and then gets paid. He often feared that someone would come after him one day to get revenge over a personal grudge. It could be someone close to one of the culprits he was paid to gather damning evidence on that would whisk them off to jail. Then again, investigating was all about righting the wrongs, so from the perspective of those behind the crimes, he was in the wrong, and they were in the right. Then, it would be no surprise that many people would be out to get him, to right the wrongs he did in their eyes for the sake of justice.

He often fell into trances like this because of the nature of his job, and because he was naturally, a very anxious person. And when he looked out of the train window after snapping out of another one of his delirious fever dreams, he was anxious, yet again, at the fact that he had indeed missed his stop.

His department had dispatched him to a town ten kilometres south due to the rebirth of a notorious crime syndicate. From hitmen to drugs, child pornography to military-grade weapons, they supplied everything under the sun for all the fantasies a crime-lust struck criminal could conjure in their sick heads. And it did not come as a surprise that a terrorist group was resurging because of this syndicate that worked so hard behind the scenes to fuel corrupted morals and the open, public exhibition of them (which involved biochemical attacks, rogue car bombs and more recently, mass poisoning in the form of spiked alcohol. And not just by the cup, but by the batch).

 _Thank heavens,_ he thought to himself. _The last time I had a drink was two years ago, when— what?_ A squeaky, high-pitched noise filled the train and his heart performed a miniature flip-flop into his oesophagus. Cursing under his breath, he turned away from the window and toward the direction of the alarming noise.

_Wait, what?_

He was standing two cabins away from the front of the train, and at the front of the train, there was a fire that seemingly materialised out of thin air. No one in the vicinity was carrying anything suspicious that looked like it could have been used to start a fire, so the next thing the frenzied passengers turned to was the burning cabin. And not to add that the train was swerving precariously from left to right, which was what was causing the annoying, ear-raping squeaky noise.

Alas, the front cabin was obstructed by the blazing inferno. He briefly thought of jumping through the fire to alert the train captain, who could have fallen asleep at the wheel and caused the immense motion. As for the fire, could it have been an engine malfunction? _No, this is an electricity-powered train,_ he refuted his own theory as soon as it came up, self-doubt written all over his face.

_Call the police._

As he calmly talked on the phone with the authorities to alert them of this distressing situation – his detective work had him long accustomed to life-or-death situations, and _this,_ he thought for a brief moment, _this is where someone kills me for putting their uncle in jail_ – he also thought of ways to get off the literal train wreck he was on because he was on the verge of hurling up the toast he had for breakfast.

Announcements started to blare from the overhead speakers. “Hello, this is control station speaking, we have been alerted to a case of arson on board a moving train… remain calm and proceed away from the fire… please evacuate when the train stops at the next station.” He cursed below his breath again: this must be the infamous syndicate that gave outlaws the power and authority to do as they pleased. Another anonymous act of impulse and evil.

The minute-long ride to the next station felt like an hour, as the cliché saying went. Everyone was hurriedly walking against the direction the train was moving in, awkwardly stumbling around poles and seats. He was also taken along with the flow of the crowd, with an occasional jostle here and there shifting him along. Life was a solemn trudge towards death, and sometimes people would come along to nudge you towards the end of your journey. That was the case for him – he just went with the flow, and sometimes some unfortunate events, such as him missing his stop, would result in him being thrust into an unexpected life-or-death situation. How many life-or-death situations had he been in, anyway? They were uncountable.

Finally, the nauseating ride came to a halt, and the train doors quaked open. Passengers rushed out like a swarm of provoked bees charging out of a beehive and to their opponent in a fleeting display of self-sacrifice for their queen.

 _Where… am I?_ was his first question when he found himself not on the train any longer. This was certainly not the town he was allocated to be in, and he was certainly lost in a foreign place he had never been in before.

With his eyes drawn towards the airy stature of the tall station, he had failed to notice the person who was running towards the train at the platform like it was the last train on Earth. And as television dramas always went, they bumped into each other like headless chickens.

The other person who bumped into him was dazed for a while, and she seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. He came to his senses after a few seconds, and waved at the other person. “Are you alright?” his soft, quavering voice barely made it to her ears.

“I– yeah, I’m good,” she stammered, embarrassed by the awkward encounter. “I’ve got to get on this train now,” she huffed, rushing off toward the train. “Wait!” he called out again, trying to project his voice as much as he could.

“That train is on fire.”

And with that line, a series of hard-to-conceive events would just begin to unfold under the brumous December sky. He was never one to celebrate the year-end holidays, and in a world where everyone was up to their head in Christmas presents, it would pay dearly, for good or for bad in this story to be the odd one out, to be that boy who everyone thought was dropped on his head as a child, to be the only one who second-guessed.

“On fire?”

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! thanks for reading this until here haha, i hope you enjoyed this prologue (kind of like a scene setting chapter)
> 
> i'm not really sure if this counts as noir, but i tagged it as detective noir because ao3 doesn't have a tag for hardboiled fiction :( (but then again, i'm not sure if such mild content falls under hardboiled fiction because i don't want shuichi to fall into morally corrupt pathways dshjdfh)
> 
> this is my first time doing such a style of writing, so feel free to correct me if there are any mistakes!
> 
> leave suggestions, feedback, requests, questions below! i'd be happy to take requests for future work as well as feedback to improve this work!
> 
> as always, thanks for reading! i love you :D


	2. december rain

“On fire?” the blonde girl repeated, mouth hanging agape in disbelief. Then, at that moment, in a spectacular burst of heat, the fire roared out of the front cabin and through the open doors, and everyone who was making their way towards the train realised what they were walking into. “Stay back! Stay back!” a police officer suddenly ran into the station, exclaiming. “This is a purported terrorist attack. Don’t board this train.”

There were chaotic screams, shouts and a wailing baby upon the mention of the words ‘terrorist attack’. The station was flooded with as much hysteria as there was heat, and everyone was frantically trying to leave (but could not turn their heads away from the terrific spectacle). Soon, the distant cries of sirens started coming closer, and more policemen joined in the effort to cordon off the burning train.

“I think… we should go,” he nudged the blonde girl nervously, who seemed to be in as deep of a trance as everyone else. It appeared that his soft voice did not penetrate the distraught cacophony of sirens layered over the shouting policemen and the curious crowd. He eventually gave up and left the station by himself, cursing under his breath for the third and final time that day. It seemed that he would have to rely on his own brain to figure out where he was going.

Heading out of the station, he was hit by an intense smell of freshly baked gingerbread men, decking the shelves of a rather eye-catching bakery display. But he shook his head and resolved to focus on his task as soon as he was lured by the colourful colours and aromatic aromas. Anyway, it was probably best to consume something he made on his own than something 

Since he had missed one stop, he would just have to walk that distance north to reach where he was supposed to have alighted at.  _ Hopefully it isn’t too much of a distance… _ he thought to himself as he walked. The street strangely had no signs pointing to the town he was headed to, so all he could do was rely on his instinct and a picture of the apartment he would be staying in for a short period of the foreseeable future, or at least until he cracked the identity of the mastermind behind this syndicate.

After fifteen minutes, he somehow had not successfully located the place he was meant to have alighted at. Then, it dawned on him that he should have stayed at the train station to catch a northbound train to the correct stop. But then again, the trains did not come frequently. Still, the time it took for him to walk and realise would probably have been enough time until the next train. So should he go back to the train station or continue on his fruitless journey and hope for the best?

Before he could answer anything, the sky overrode any decision he could make, and drove him into the nearest roadside café he could duck under for cover. Raindrops started forming a curtain between the sky and the earth, and he was tempted to curse under his breath once more, but the shrill greeting from behind distracted him. “Would you like a cup of coffee and cake?”

Inside the café, there was a tantalising selection of cakes on display. Marble cake, vanilla cake, red velvet… he had a hard time deciding if any of them were worth his attention.  _ I’m stuck here anyway, so why not? _ But half of him was also concerned that the cakes might have been poisoned with something, somehow. Since there was a large crime syndicate just one town away, it would be easy for someone in this town to “accidentally” slip some toxic chemicals into food and sell it to the public. Someone had already done so with liqueur, so it would not be surprising if all the coffee and cakes in the café were tainted.

After three minutes of pondering, he had to firmly turn the kind barista’s offer down out of his paranoia.

☽

The rain storm abated after half-an-hour, and he started for the café door when the last drops of drizzle had fallen from the sky.

Just as he stepped out of the café, the barista called after him once more. “Please consider! They’re half off.”

“Have you been waiting for this moment to ensnare me in your trap of lies?” he turned around, blurting out and immediately realising that he sounded like a fool. “I-I mean… I’m not very hungry right now.”

“Lies?” the barista laughed to himself, coming out from behind the counter and standing right in front of the bewildered detective.

“Squat down for a little and let me tell you something,” he whispered.  _ Why am I listening to him? He sounds like a full-time criminal. _ Alas, the detective could not stop himself from complying; there was just something so mysterious about the other boy who was significantly shorter than him, probably by about fifteen centimetres.

“It’s the real deal,” he whispered into the detective’s ear. Then, he took out one slice of cake from the refrigerator beside the counter, taking one bite with his fork. “See? I’ll eat it for you to see.”

The detective was starting to get a little irritated. “There’s a criminal organisation where I’m headed, and I have strong reason to believe that any food item I see might be tainted with some sort of lethal poison. How do I know you’re not just eating a clean copy?”

“Wow… you’re quite sharp. I guess there’s nothing I can say anymore. You’re right!”

The detective froze in his steps.  _ Did he just confess to committing a crime? _

“Just kidding! I would never do something like that.”

The detective sighed, shaking his head and walking out of the shop. Whatever the case was, he did not feel like eating anything at the moment, and that would be the end of the story. “Wait! Come back! I’m not done with you yet,” the barista called after him, but he was simply not going to have it. Just as the detective stepped out onto the street to continue on the journey that he may never find the destination to, a sharp thud resonated from behind him.

He gasped upon realising who was presented in front of him: the woman from the train station earlier. “Hey, so you finally got out of the station.”

“Huh? Oh, hello,” the woman helped herself up, gathering her belongings and brushing herself off. “I didn’t know you were headed in this direction.”

“I missed a stop and ended up at the wrong station, so I’m trying to get to the right place now. It was kind of foolish for me not to have taken the train in the opposite direction, though.”

“Don’t worry about it! The train station was closed soon after we met because the police needed to do a full-scale investigation on the fire. Anyway, you wanted to get off at the station before the one you ended up at earlier on?”   


“That’s right. I actually wanted to ask you for directions, but if you’re busy I’ll try to find my way on my own.”

“I can show you directions! Have you tried Maps yet though? I know it can be a bit wonky, but it helps sometimes.”

“Maps?”

“You know, the app on your phone?” The blonde whipped her phone out, tapping on the application and entering the destination. A blue line appeared on screen, outlining the path that the detective had to take. “Oh… I actually…” he began upon realising what she meant. “I don’t really believe in technology,” he laughed, taking out a flip phone and showing it to the girl.

“A cellphone? The last time I had one of those was years ago,” she marvelled in awe at the sight of something that was so recent yet so archaic at the same time. How could one thing have both opposite attributes at one time?

“Y’know, you’re quite an interesting person. Maybe we could make good friends. Anyway, let’s get going. I know where you’re talking about, so just follow me.”

“Hey, leaving so soon?” a familiar voice called out from the side, and the detective already knew who it was.  “You’d rather spend time with that chick than me? That’s sad to hear.”

Upon noticing who was speaking to them, the blonde girl’s eyes widened, and her expression soon changed into one of fury. “So you work here now? Did your previous workplace fire you for inappropriate conduct?”

“That’s one way to put it,” he chuckled. “Let’s go, I have nothing to do with him anymore,” the blonde girl huffed, turning away and angrily strutting away. The detective sighed once more, taking one last glance at the barista and walking away. He wanted to ask the other girl about the barista, but judging from the drastic change in her tone of voice, he figured that talking about it was not a great idea.

Following the girl through the rain-soaked streets, the chill in the air put a little spring in his step, and the drama earlier in the day seemed like just a distant echo. The blonde girl was genuinely nice to be around, and through their conversations they got to know each other a little.

Upon reaching the sketchy town he was assigned to investigate, the both of them parted ways – the detective to his apartment, and the blonde girl to a bakery to pick up some pastries. But before that, the blonde girl entered her number onto his phone, along with her name. “You don’t seem like a local here, so call me if you get lost again!”

“Kaede? Thank you, I will,” he said, glancing at the name on his phone. And with that, both of them parted ways.  _ For now. _ To be honest, he did not expect the girl to put his number onto his phone with such confidence.  _ Is it not the other way around? _

His department had leased out the apartment for half a year, and they would be renewing it if he required more time to look into the despicable crime syndicate. Thankfully, his superior had also given him a few days of rest and relaxation to allow him to explore the new town, perhaps spend some time setting up the apartment as well. As much as he preferred to get to work as soon as possible, his superior  _ insisted _ on giving him a little bit of time off. Either way, he was definitely going to relish the time that he had to himself for those few days.

The crusty lift doors creaked open, and the musty, dank air sharply infiltrated the detective’s nostrils. The building seemed kind of run-down, but it would have to do for that time being. The detective was not really all that accustomed to luxury, anyway – his own apartment was not particularly fancy, and only had one room to accomodate just himself. As a matter of fact he did not pack much for his stay in the crime-infested district, only bringing with him some clothes, a laptop and a box of loose-leaf tea. He also had on him a fountain pen, a notebook and a pocket-watch in the pocket of his coat. The clock on his phone had long gone awry and would always run a few minutes off even after he set it back to the correct time, so he had long given up on correcting the issue.

After setting up the apartment to his liking and taking a long, hot shower, it was already a quarter past three in the afternoon, and he decided to take a short snooze before heading out for dinner that night.

Come to think of it, where could he even go for food? The town was alien, strange and unfamilliar to him. He thought about calling the blonde girl for a minute, but decided that he would rather not disturb her unless he was really, helplessly lost again.

☽

When he awakened for the second time that day the golden rays of twilight were streaming in from the window adjacent to his single bed. There was a tree that blocked some of the sunlight out, so the room was quite dim, but he figured that it would help prevent the room from heating up too much when the sunlight was at full force.

It appeared that snow had no intention of visiting the town that winter, which was a relief to the detective who did not like wearing many layers when he went out. He could easily go out with just a single layer on him seeing that the town’s climate was not too cold.

There were Italian, Chinese and Indian cuisine restaurants lining the streets, and all the food was either too expensive or too foreign for his liking. There seemed to be no end to it, restaurant after restaurant after restaurant kept popping up. Eventually, the oasis in a desert popped up: a convenience store, the perfect place for some cheap sushi and a can of soda.

That night, another downpour visited the town, and it helped to lull him to sleep. He usually took an hour to doze off, as many troubling thoughts always plauged his mind, If he was not thinking about the cases he was assigned, it would be what his next case would be about, or if someone would break into his apartment at night to kill him. (Thankfully, none of that last bit ever happened.) However, that night was quite peaceful, and he had no difficulties in quickly falling asleep. Before he fully nodded off, he almost heard the faint sounds of a piano dancing around his ears like mysterious fairies.

It was hard to distinguish over the sound of raindrops pitter-pattering on the tree leaves, but it helped him to fall asleep just that bit easier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! thanks for reading :) i tried to push this update out while i had a bit of momentum left from the prologue, so i hope you enjoyed!
> 
> i'm working on two other fanfics right now as well, so progress might get a bit stale, also i'm starting school again in just a little more than a week, but i'll still try my best to update as much as i can!
> 
> i definitely will not leave this unfinished, so don't worry if i disappear for a bit :0
> 
> take care of yourself today, and i love you :D
> 
> p.s. — thanks for 10 kudos!


	3. crinkled paper

_ Dear diary, — _

_ No. _

_ Let’s not begin with clichés. _

_ I woke up today to a foggy winter morning. There has been no trace of overnight snow, so I shall be able to manage with just a layer outside. I oddly managed to sleep well last night, a luxury I had not relished for a long time. Perhaps a change of lodgings now and then is the perfect cure for my insomnia. Before I drifted off I managed to hear some piano in the background, which was the cherry on top to my blissful slumber. _

_ Yesterday I also met a pleasant person and a not-so-pleasant person. The former helped me to find my destination. To be honest, I never thought I would see her again after we parted ways at the train station. But I have taken quite a liking to her although we have not shared an hour yet. _

_ I shall not write about the latter, for I think he is a potential suspect involved with the new crime syndicate. The wide grin on his face shone brightly past his dark purple hair, which put me off quite a bit. Criminals smile the widest when they’re right in front of their prey. To be fair, he was quite short. I’m not sure if this will prove as a hindrance or an advantage to whatever schemes he has planned – if he has any – but it is somewhat noteworthy that he admitted to poisoning the cakes he nearly lured me into consuming, before laughing his statement off as a lie. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not, but it’s best I keep my guard against him. _

_ Well, I just realised that I’ve written an entire paragraph on him. Fountain pens don’t go back on their words, so this shall remain etched in my book. If you’re not Saihara Shuichi and you’re reading this, please pretend I did not just contradict myself. _

_ Another realisation – I have yet to introduce myself to the other girl. For the most part of our fleetingly brief journey together, she was scrolling aggressively on her phone, looking at some news. I believe she did not know about the crime syndicate before I mentioned it to her during our stroll, and since then she was staring at my mobile device with a face of bewilderment, looking through news article after news article. (She could not read news on her cell phone.) The local police were met with many dead ends when they tried to investigate the syndicate, she told me. I only read the newspaper once a week when it is given out at the corner around my original place of residence, so I have not been quite up to date with the situation. It seems that all traces leading to the crime syndicate were blocked by disposable email addresses and burner phones. Since the syndicate made the news I believe the criminals have been lying low, which might be a good thing. I shall take this opportunity to delve as deep as I can without being noticed and targeted by the syndicate. Perhaps investigating the suspicious coffee shop I took shelter in from the rain yesterday will lead me somewhere as well. _

_ Back from my tangent, yes – it is quite a shame that I have not managed to introduce myself to the girl I have taken a liking to. I wouldn’t say that I like her romantically, but she looked friendly enough to be a penpal or a friend. I shall remind myself to contact her once my investigation ceases and this case is resolved, and hopefully, we can meet over a cup of tea someday. _

_ As I start this new paragraph, my pocket-watch has told the time. It is 8 o’clock in the morning, and I shall set off for a preliminary investigation. When I get back home at night to report back to my division, I’ll tell them about anything I find. I’ll make it sound like it was something I coincidentally came across while resting so they shall not send me off on more breaks. _

_ P.S. I shall also leave my compliments to the person playing the piano next door. It really helped me to sleep well. I do not wish to knock on their door, though, because I would not fancy the same thing being done to me except if I am expecting a parcel. _

_ P.P.S The ventilation in this apartment is great. I am considering permanently living here once this case wraps up. _

Sighing, Shuichi closed the crinkled notebook he had been writing in for the past fifteen minutes in largely-illegible handwriting. He had kept it with him for years, unreluctant to throw the mess it had become away. Once, he dropped it into a puddle of water. Another time he accidentally spilt coffee onto it – and coffee with two spoons of condensed milk and one pump of vanilla syrup, at that. If the overly-sweet coffee was not enough to put him off drinking festive drinks at coffee shops for the next few months of his life, then the soaked pages of his notebook would.

Since then, he stuck to drinking only black coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _this chapter was highly inspired by "it's raining outside and clair de lune by debussy is playing in the next room" by just stop thinking on youtube! it's a great video to sleep to, so check it out if you have trouble falling asleep ^^_
> 
> school started officially :( i knew that the first week would be busy, so i've written two chapters to publish for this update to make up for the long drought in updates :D i hope the wait was not too long ;;
> 
> thanks for reading this chapter! the next chapter is available now too, so give it a read if you please <3
> 
> 11 march edit: ;0; i just realised i said that kaede was reading the news on her mobile device instead of shuichi's mobile device HDJDJD totally forgot that kaede had like a nokia or something,.,., anyway it's fixed now so yea :D
> 
> school has been killing me and i failed an exam D: but there's a break soon and i hope to publish more chapters then :,D
> 
> if you read till here can i please have your hand in marriage /platonic
> 
> anyways have a nice day (=^・・^=)


	4. secrets

“Thank you for the wonderful piano music last night. I have found a cure for my insomnia,” the detective mouthed out as he wrote onto a small card. This time, he wrote as slowly, legibly and neatly as possible.

After taking his usual morning shower, carefully setting the note in between the gaps between his neighbour’s iron gates and procuring a cup of coffee from the nearby coffee shop, Shuichi was ready to take the day on.

_ Wait… _ he stopped himself before stepping out of the apartment block.  _ Where exactly am I headed? _

☽

10 minutes and one directory acquired later, Shuichi returned to his room to figure out places of interest that would help to kickstart his investigation. There was a library in the town centre, a few major coffee chain outlets, and the train station. Those were places of interest that criminals lurked at to plan their next strike.

_ No… considering the recent news, I think they would be lying low. _ Shuichi thought. He started looking at back alleys and shady outskirts that would be the perfect playground for criminals to prowl. However, the news also did mention that police were patrolling the more rural areas of the town after the spike in terrorist acts, and besides, why would criminals plant bombs where few people frequented? The best effects would have to be achieved in broad daylight, where the majority of people were at. It became a paradox because the criminals would want to target high-frequency areas, but it would become easy for them to get caught. Then they would move to the less-crowded parts of town, but the damage done there would be less. Then they would have to focus on the central areas of the town again, and risk getting caught red-handed, so on and so forth… Shuichi was confounded by all the possibilities.

Just then, there was a knock on his door, and he sprung up from his seat to answer whoever might have been looking for him. There were no possible people that might have wanted to visit him seeing that it was his first day in the town, so there was no telling what may have been behind the door. “Thankfully I’m not busy right now…” he muttered under his breath, lifting the peephole cover up to see who was outside.

As much as he disliked being looked for by other people, there was the curious possibility that the person on the other side of the door might have been a new lead right into the crime syndicate. To be fair, anyone he talked to in the town could be potential criminal suspects, seeing that the resurgence of the syndicate gave anyone the power to wield any weapon they wished. All they had to do was give the mastermind a ring.

What if the girl he talked to that day was also part of the crime syndicate?  _ What if she was just disguised as a normal person? _ There was no telling for sure. Perhaps they could meet up for tea sometime, and he could try to figure out if Kaede was suspicious or not. If she was on his side, she would prove to be a vital source of information in the investigation owing to her familiarity with every nook and cranny of the town. According to her, as she mentioned on her walk with Shuichi, she had lived there her whole life.

Upon inspecting the peephole there was no one to be found outside.  _ Who was it that knocked, then? _

The detective cautiously creaked the door open, scanning the corridor outside to make sure no one was about to kill him. After ascertaining that the corridor was empty, he then scanned the floor to see if there was a misdelivered parcel. The apartment block was quite complicated to navigate, so it would not have come as a shock if a postman accidentally went onto the wrong floor or went a few units too far down.

Alas, there was no parcel. So who knocked on the door? It could have just been a mischievous kid who found out about their new neighbour and decided to play ding-dong-ditch. As Shuichi was about to shrug the unexpected mystery off, he noticed a small card lying at the foot of his door which he somehow missed earlier. It was almost the same shade as the floor, making it hard to spot.

_ So this is what the mystery person left? Let’s see… _ Shuichi picked the card up, squinting his eyes. It appeared to be the note that he left at his neighbour’s door. Now, there was a reply written beneath his message: “Thank you! I was playing Clair de Lune by Debussy. It helps me calm my nerves before I sleep.”

“Clair de Lune… thank you for the recommendation. I am not well versed in the area of classical music, so I appreciate your comments,” Shuichi replied, placing the note back in front of his neighbour’s door and carrying on with the location scouting.

☽

Shuichi finally made up his mind to pay the local police headquarters to check the surveillance footage at hotspots across the town centre to see if anything had been planted overnight. The criminals were (in)famous for using the same  _ modus operandi _ – planting their bombs at obscure locations at three in the morning, donned in mysterious, dark coats and identity-concealing masks that covered their faces from eyebrow to eyebrow. Usually, they struck alone, and although each had the same disguise they all had different heights, leading police to the conclusion that they were several people from the same group or establishment.

“Hello, I’m on a work attachment,” Shuichi greeted the officer on duty at the front desk, handing the person behind the counter some documents to prove that he had the license to gain access to said footage.

“Shu… ichi?” the officer asked, raising an eyebrow as he checked the papers.

“I-is there something wrong?” Shuichi replied. “You can call my boss to verify that I’m allowed to do this,” he added, sliding over a name card.

“No, no, that’s not an issue. It’s… nevermind. I’ll take you to see the footage now.”

Shuichi went behind the counter and followed the man, down various hallways, up one lift, down one flight of stairs, through three doors and eventually into a room full of monitors. The entire journey took around two minutes, and it also gave Shuichi a sensing of how big the place was.

“Okay, see this screen?” the police officer said to Shuichi, who was rather distracted by all the high-tech gizmos surrounding him whole. Coming back to reality, Shuichi coughed awkwardly, and gave a slight nod. “Just enter the date of the footage you would like to access, then pick one of the dots on the map. The dots indicate the locations of cameras. We archive footage into the database on a monthly basis in case any information is compromised, so there is footage from 1 December up till now.”

“Got it,” Shuichi slowly nodded, reaching his hand to touch the screen. He had never used something at such a high degree of advancement before, and everything was quite alien (but still fascinating) to his eyes. Before the police officer left, Shuichi called out for one last thing. “Do you have a rough idea of where the criminals strike?”

“The bombings are on a small scale, not sufficient to kill anyone. So far the previous ones have been in open areas, usually planted from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. There is no exact location category, so feel free to check anywhere from traffic lights to alfresco restaurants. These places have been targeted before.”

_ A bomb that is not enough to kill people… what kind of criminal would set that off? Does that even constitute terrorism? Every time they don’t kill someone it’s an opportunity wasted, at least from the criminals’ point of view...  _ Shuichi could not help but think. He thanked the police officer for the information and set to his arduous task.

Seeing that the criminals would plant bombs around the city centre every two weeks, Shuichi estimated that the current day was the next time they would attack. He selected that day’s date, picked a camera set up at a street corner and set the time to 2 a.m. Since there would be two hours of footage to go through, he sped it up a little to hasten the process while maintaining visual clarity of any potential subjects.

At the end of the footage, he had some sort of a frown on his face. There was no distinct, noteworthy movement. The only things he saw were occasional cars cruising across the road and some pedestrians. There was no fully-clothed man with a disguise who placed anything half as suspicious as a bomb anywhere.

To confirm that the camera had no blind spots, Shuichi chose another camera across the street, on the same date and throughout the same time range.  _ Just as I thought… there really hasn’t been anyone up to no good coming around this location. _

For the next few hours, the detective checked most of the cameras in the city centre, to no avail. There was no trace of any weapons and there was no one who walked past that was dressed in all black, confirming his theory that the attackers were, indeed, lying low for the past few weeks now that the police and mass media have had their eyes trained on this crime syndicate.

With no clues left in hand, he had no choice but to retreat from the frontlines of the investigation, leaving the police headquarters. “So, did you get anything?” the police officer at the front desk said as he eyed Shuichi walking out of the monitor room.

A little dejected, the detective shook his head. “I believe the crime syndicate is lying low for now. I’ll try to find more leads across the town. Thanks very much.”

“My pleasure. Come back anytime you think of something,” the police officer smiled.

“Thank you. By the way, you may be…?”

The police officer slid his name card over to Shuichi, and Shuichi’s eyes widened when he realised the name on it. It was no surprise then, that the person in front of him looked so familiar.

☽

“I’ll take one slice,” he panted, pushing the café door open and trudging in. He had taken advantage of the clear weather to half-dash to the café he had stopped at previously.

“Oh, it seems you’ve changed your mind. I’m obligated.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading this two-chapter update!!
> 
> school has just started, so i'm still trying to adapt to a new routine. i plan on completing this fanfic, so i will stick to writing it even if it takes a long time! don't worry if there are no updates for a long time, because i want to see this work finished :)
> 
> befriend, spam, or rant/vent at @hopefullychiaki on instagram, where you can also feel free to bug me about updates!! ask me anything you want haha
> 
> have a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading this until here haha, i hope you enjoyed this prologue (kind of like a scene setting chapter)
> 
> i'm not really sure if this counts as noir, but i tagged it as detective noir because ao3 doesn't have a tag for hardboiled fiction :( (but then again, i'm not sure if such mild content falls under hardboiled fiction because i don't want shuichi to fall into morally corrupt pathways dshjdfh)
> 
> this is my first time doing such a style of writing, so feel free to correct me if there are any mistakes!
> 
> leave suggestions, feedback, requests, questions below! i'd be happy to take requests for future work as well as feedback to improve this work!
> 
> as always, thanks for reading! i love you :D


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